Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) should “stand up to” her Twitter followers for their “very inappropriate” taunts referencing the GOP congressional baseball shooting, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Monday morning on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”

Scalise (shown above right) was shot and critically wounded during a June 2017 GOP congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, by left-wing gunman James Hodgkinson.

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The gunman, who died after officers shot him, was a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Ocasio-Cortez (above left), the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, was sworn into office last Thursday along with the new Democratic majority. The newly minted congresswoman spoke with CNN anchor and CBS correspondent Anderson Cooper for an interview that aired in full on Sunday on CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”

Scalise and Ocasio-Cortez debated on Twitter over remarks the congresswoman made in a preview clip of the interview that aired last week.

In particular, Scalise took issue with Ocasio-Cortez’s demand for a “progressive tax rate system” that could result in a tax as high as 70 percent.

Ocasio-Cortez is urging her Democratic colleagues to pass the radical Green New Deal, which calls for the U.S. to use 100 percent renewable energy, phase out all fossil fuels within 12 years, and release zero carbon emissions.

Related: Here’s How Ocasio-Cortez Plans to Pay for Her Green Deal Deal

Ocasio-Cortez said she plans to pay for this expensive and radical plan by demanding the nation’s wealthiest be willing to pay “their fair share.”

“But once you get to, like, the tippy tops, on your 10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “That doesn’t mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate, but it means that as you climb up this ladder you should be contributing more.”

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Scalise responded on Twitter to Ocasio-Cortez’s comments on Saturday, writing, “Republicans: Let Americans keep more of their own hard-earned money. Democrats: Take away 70 percent of your income and give it to leftist fantasy programs.”

Ocasio-Cortez replied, “You’re the GOP minority whip. How do you not know how marginal tax rates work? Oh that’s right, almost forgot: GOP works for the corporate CEOs showering themselves in multi-million bonuses; not the actual working people whose wages + health care they’re ripping off for profit.”

But it didn’t take long for some of Ocasio-Cortez’s followers to pile on Scalise with vile comments that alluded to the congressional baseball shooting.

One follower tweeted, “Snipe his a**.”

Another wrote, “She’s got better aim than James Hodgkinson, that’s for sure.”

Another tweeted, “Kick his cane.”

Scalise still uses a cane a year-and-a-half after the shooting.

The GOP congressman bowed out of the Twitter debate early Sunday morning, tweeting, “Hi @AOC. Happy to continue this debate on the Floor of the People’s House, but it’s clearly not productive to engage here with some of your radical followers. #StayClassy.”

Scalise said Monday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” that he “was just trying to have a little fun debate about this” on Twitter.

“It’s an important issue. I strongly disagree with this idea that you should confiscate all the money, or most of the money that people make and try to get into this class warfare debate,” Scalise said. “Once we started getting into this Twitter back-and-forth, a lot of her followers started making some very inappropriate references and comments.”

“I said, ‘You know what? I’m not going to have this debate here. I’ll have it with you on the House floor,'” Scalise said.

When asked if Ocasio-Cortez had reached out to him, Scalise replied, “No, I haven’t heard from her yet.”

“I’d like to see her stand up to this. Everybody ought to stand up to this kind of discussion,” Scalise said. “If somebody wants to have a debate about policy, that’s what we’re all about. That’s what the First Amendment is all about. But you shouldn’t threaten people. If you’ve got to threaten people to make your point, you’ve already lost.”

At the time of this article’s publishing, Ocasio-Cortez still had not reached out to Scalise or rebuked her followers for their vile comments.

Check out more in the video below: